Sony Announces Cross-Platform Play for Fortnite

PlayStation 4 players can at last rejoice! Cross-platform play for Fortnite is finally coming to the PS4.

In a tweet this morning, Sony announced that cross-platform play would become available to PlayStation players in open beta. The announcement has been met with enthusiasm from fans, and even a cheeky response from Xbox’s official twitter.

Sony’s compliance comes as a surprise to the gaming industry. The company had previously declined to allow cross-platform play, asserting that cross-play would expose Sony users to harmful influences from outsides platforms.

The excuses crumbled when the far more family-friendly Nintendo steamrolled Sony’s defense by choosing to allow cross-play interactions between Switch and Xbox One players.

Nintendo-Xbox promotional imagery for Minecraft.

Sony’s lack of cooperation also proved harmful to Fortnite players with multiple consoles.

Players were left to create numerous accounts when it was found that Sony-created Fortnite accounts could not be used to log into other platforms. Gamers who had invested hours into a particular account found themselves having to start from scratch, with the potential to shell out double the amount of money for multiple Battle Passes.

As a result, the choice to remain apart was met with heavy criticism and push back from fans and gaming conglomerates alike. At the time, Sony had established itself as an outlier in an industry where Switch, Xbox, and PC players could game together, and the ensuing criticism did little to increase the company’s reputation.

It therefore makes sense that Sony would finally crack and implement a cross-play feature. Sony’s move towards cross system collaboration is already being met with heavy praise across networks, and surprised, but pleased reactions.

As for Fortnite players, Epic has promised to work on the ability to merge Sony Fortnite accounts with those of other platforms so that players can continue to game using a single Epic account. Ultimately, Sony’s cooperation could spell out a bright future for the cross-play gaming industry.